Neutralise your “carbon footprint” — Grow a Tree

Grow A Tree Starter Pack

Neutralising one’s “car­bon foot­print” seems to be the catch­phrase of 2009. What does this mean exactly? Well the basic idea is to plant a tree to neg­ate the effects of all of the car­bon emis­sions we are respons­ible for, in our daily lives. The rule of thumb is:

“For every 5000 km you travel in a car or for every 5 hours you spend on a plane, you should plant 1 tree. If you never travel in a car or a plane, you should plant 10 trees to neut­ral­ize the effects of your household.”

So, now that you know what to do, how and where can you do it?

For those with green fin­gers, get down to your nearest nurs­ery and buy the seeds with which to grow your own tree. Some indi­gen­ous options which will beau­tify your garden, side­walk or neigh­bour­hood include the Fever Tree, Cape Chestnut, Pompon Tree, Wild Pear and Forest Elder, though your nurs­ery will be bet­ter able to advise you of the best options for your area.

Grow A Tree (based in Gauteng), the brainchild of Sean Hide, sells 12 vari­et­ies of indi­gen­ous tree seeds in brown, white or green hes­sian bags. But more than that, Grow A Tree is act­ively involved in edu­cat­ing chil­dren in South Africa about the import­ance of trees. If you don’t want to get your hands dirty, you can spon­sor a tree for only R20, which will be planted in a com­munity area. Visit: http://www.growatree.co.za

Another pro­ject well worth sup­port­ing is Indigenous Trees for Life (an ini­ti­at­ive of Wildlands Conservation Trust, based in KwaZulu Natal). This con­ser­va­tion pro­ject is com­munity based and teaches dis­ad­vant­aged com­munit­ies (primar­ily orphaned chil­dren) to grow indi­gen­ous trees from seed, which are then bartered for goods donated to the Wildlands Conservation Trust by cor­por­ate spon­sors. The trees are then planted in com­munit­ies lead­ing to “Urban Greening”. Sponsorships and dona­tions are most wel­come. Visit: http://www.wildlands.co.za/Programmes_TreesForLife_Map.aspx

September, the begin­ning of Spring in South Africa, is Arbor Month. Food & Trees for Africa receive requests from schools and com­munit­ies look­ing to “green” their environs and provide valu­able inform­a­tion, advice and assist­ance. Make a dona­tion, become a cor­por­ate spon­sor, buy trees as a char­it­able gift, volun­teer your time or simply use their CO2 Calculator to work out your car­bon foot­print. Visit: http://www.trees.co.za

Also check out:

• http://www.platbos.co.za/reforestation_project.html
• http://www.greenaplanet.co.za